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The Return

After a long blogging hiatus, I’m back! We recently moved to my hometown, a place that feels both familiar and new. It’s been an uncovering of old haunts and childhood memories. And it’s been a process of rediscovering a city that’s transformed over two decades and seeing it through the fresh eyes of my kids.

So, consider this my return. A return to this blog, to my hometown, and perhaps on some level, to myself.

In the interim, I’ve been thinking a lot about writing and a way to cultivate a more regular writing habit. I admire people who have dedicated practices — the stalwart early morning exerciser or crack of dawn writer, the daily meditator. After lots of abandoned practices and experimenting, I’ve learned that for me, starting small is better than not starting.

In that spirit, and inspired by #onegoodthing on the profoundly beautiful Commonplace blog (and a similar practice detailed in Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant’s brave book, Option B), last month I started writing down one good thing from each day. It’s my attempt at writing a few words daily and perhaps more important, of identifying and naming those moments of goodness.

There are those great days where it’s hard to pick just one good thing and there are other days where I have to dig deep to find the bits of joy. But the practice of recording them in the slivers of solitude each night has taught me a lot. It reminds me of the Where’s Waldo? books, where the reader has to find Waldo in his striped shirt and hat on each page. Some pages are more difficult than others, but over time, it gets easier to find Waldo since your eyes get accustomed to looking for him. In that way, I’m building my joy muscle. Going through my day I’m primed to see those gems, those “thin slices of joy” as Chade-Meng Tan calls them. And when I find them, I hold them up to the sun and watch them sparkle.

May 2017

Cherry blossoms cover my windshield like snowflakes

Cutting veggies, a glass of wine, and the wistful notes of Billie Holiday

An impromptu dance party

The sweet, deep slumber of a child

Discovering the self-serve carwash with a 7-year-old

Getting lost in the best bookstore

A meandering hike in a new place on a sunny, spring day

Rosé in a can and leftover pizza

Falling asleep with a good book

Overhearing my kids tell each other silly knock-knock jokes

Noticing the countless shades of green outside my window after a rain on a spring evening

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7 thoughts on “The Return”

Glad you are back with your Alphabet Scramble “jewels”!! Thank you. 😊 We’ve missed you and your “words of wisdom”!! Love, Mom

On Thu, Jun 8, 2017 at 10:38 AM, Alphabet Scramble wrote:

> hlspain posted: “After a long blogging hiatus, I’m back! We recently moved > to my hometown, a place that feels both familiar and new. It’s been an > uncovering of old haunts and childhood memories. And it’s been a process of > rediscovering a city that’s transformed over two d” >

I am deeply touched by this, Heather. So happy you’re writing again and that now I’ve discovered you so I can follow along. And *yes* to everything you’ve said here about the #onegoodthing practice: some days, it comes easily, others, it’s like squeezing water from a stone. But it *is* a practice, and like you, I’ve come to appreciate mining over the minutiae of my day in an attempt to extract morsels of goodness. I love your list from May and look forward to more…

Dina – thank you for reading and for your thoughtful reply. So lovely to be connected to you and your words through this crazy, electronic web. It is indeed a practice and I’m very curious to see what others learnings I’ll glean from #onegoodthing. Look forward to reading more of your lists, too! A heartfelt thanks for the inspiration.

This was incredible. You are such a strong writer, Heather. I love your blog! Thanks for writing this. I also liked the book “option B” and reading your list of 31 positives was a lot of fun. I hope to start blogging again soon, too. Way to go.

Damyanti Biswas is an author, blogger, animal-lover, spiritualist. Her work is represented by Ed Wilson from the Johnson & Alcock agency. When not pottering about with her plants or her aquariums, you can find her nose deep in a book, or baking up a storm.